LinkedIn is the largest professional (online) network in the world. The majority has 3 questions: “What’s in it for me?”, “I have a profile, now what?” and “How to get more results without spending a lot of time?”

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Why?

To actively stimulate the economy! Too many people are looking for new customers, new employees or a new job. They are hardly using LinkedIn, because they don’t know the platform well enough!

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We all know that one of the biggest strengths of LinkedIn is the visualization of your network. Unlike other business networks, you can actually see how you are connected with other people.

What happens if you would take it one step further and visualize what your LinkedIn network really looks like? In one screen? Right!

InMaps is in fact an interactive visual representation of your professional network. You can explore and learn to understand the relationships between you and all of your LinkedIn connections. Do you have clusters and a certain structure in your network? Or not at all?

How does it work? You go to this link. Login with your LinkedIn account and it will generate your map. You notice that several colors are used. You can choose a title for each color. They represent different affiliations or groups from your professional career, such as your previous work experiences, people you have met at a conference, college classmates, or industries you have worked in.

Some people have a bigger name than others. They represent people who are the most connected within that specific cluster or group. It gets even more interesting: When you click on a contact within a circle in your InMaps you will see their profile pop up on the right, as well as lines highlighting how they are connected to your connections. Like I said, discover the relationships within your LinkedIn network.

Why is that important? If you know how you are connected to the people who are in the best position to help you reach your (networking)goals, you are getting closer to realizing your goals!

There is so much you can do with LinkedIn. At Networking Coach, we can easily give a whole week of courses on LinkedIn alone. So, let me share another tip with you.

Did you know that you can reorder the sections on your LinkedIn profile?

How? It’s really easy via drag-and-drop! The headers of each of the sections on your “Edit Profile” page now have handles that can be dragged. To reorder a section, all you need to do is click and drag one of these section headers up or down the body of your profile. When you release the mouse, the section will drop into place where you dragged it, and your adjustment will take effect immediately.

Why would you change the order? Well, it gives you the ability to highlight the skills, expertise, and/or experiences that make you stand out. If you are just graduating, it makes more sense to have your education first. If you are looking for a job, it might be a good idea to share your expertise through the Applications first.

Not sure how to do it? Watch this YouTube clip and see for yourself how easy it really is!

LinkedIn comes with updates and new functionalities regularly. This time they implemented a new feature I was longing for : a bigger profile picture!

In your profile you could upload an 80 x 80 pixels image. I agree that most people look like they where just arrested or something 🙂 Others seem too far away, so instinctively I always tried to click on the picture, but of course it did not work. Now it does! And you are getting a bigger version of someone’s profile picture. I love it!

So, what are your next steps?

If you already have a profile picture (80×80 pixels), then delete it and upload a bigger picture!

If you don’t have a profile picture yet, upload a big picture rightaway! No worries about the format (max 4MB)!

LinkedIn announced the launch of Company Pages to help businesses of all sizes attract new customers using trusted, professional product and service recommendations. According to their press-release, these Company Pages would “Allow Businesses to Leverage Word-of-Mouth to Attract New Customers”.

So, what are they talking about? From now on, you can add your products or services to LinkedIn to attract, showcase and receive recommendation from your clients. Why would you do that? It’s a common fact that we tend to rely on our network before we buy certain products or services. By endorsing certain products your clients can leverage your attraction to new customers. It’s like extra endorsements! If you have people in your network who recommend a certain product that you are thinking about buying it for yourself, chances are that you tend to buy what they bought, because they endorse it.

A simple example : when you ask a friend or a colleague for a great place to have lunch with a client and he gives you a recommendation on a certain restaurant. Guess where you’ll be going for lunch next? Why? If he tells you it is a great place to eat, you believe him. If an advertisement tells you that, it has less impact.

What are the next steps?If you don’t have a company page yet, create one! It is easy & simple. Then add a number of your products or services. Invite a number of your customers to recommend them if they feel like it. While you start receiving recommendations for your products or services, you can start promoting them and relate to them in your communication. It will also bring more visibility, increase credibility and as a consequence of your rising “Know, Like & Trust” factor you probably attract more customers through your LinkedIn network. In addition to reviews, you can display videos, product information and targeted ads on your Company Pages.

More than 70 million people are on LinkedIn. How many of them have a 100% profile? Right! Not enough! Why is this important? Let me answer that with a question: What do people find when they google your name online? For most people, it is their LinkedIn profile. So, if you want to make a professional impression (your personal brand!), you’d better fill out your profile to the fullest, right?

What can you do to have a 100% profile? Watch this YouTube clip and implement it.

Oh, one more thing. You are the only one who can actually see how high your percentage is. Don’t worry, people won’t know, but they might notice. How? Well, if you don’t fill out your profile with your education, your recent position(s) or you don’t even have a photo, how would you look? Exactly, not interesting enough! Whatever opportunity may have come your way will not happen…for a reason.

You are desperately looking for a tool that helps you manage multiple Twitter accounts? Or you want to add another layer on Ping.fm? Or you want to follow up the feed of your friends or colleagues? Or you might be interested in following certain keywords or hashtags on Twitter?

Then, HootSuite is the perfect Twitter tool for you! I’ve using this tool now for more than 1 year and I can honestly say : Wow! Hootsuite rocks! Of course, we all know Tweetdeck and the like, but I tell you, HootSuite has some particular additional assets that might suit you as well!